Wigan miniaturist takes Great art to the Balkans

And to celebrate his invitation to Macedonia, he has created a miniature sculpture of its most famous son: Alexander the Great. The Wigan Infirmary nurse carved it on the tip of a white pencil-crayon so that it resembled marble.

And he also travels to the art symposium in the capital Skopje bearing minuscule likenesses of his hosts and fellow artists Gordana Vincic and Igor Ljubovceski.

Hedley, who lives in Wigan town centre, said: “I’m really looking forward to the week-long stay. I’ve been genning up on Macedonia since I was invited and it is a beautiful place. I must do some landscape painting when I am there, and I had to do a sculpture of Alexander to mark the occasion.

“Igor has done a painting of me so I’ll swap it for his sculpture. There’ll be other sculptors there too, so it will be good to share ideas.”